Menes

Rule:

Founder of 1st Dynasty: c. 3000 BC

Predecessor:

Father Narmer (presumed)

Mother:

Niethotep, wife of Narmer

Nomen:

Birth name: Established

Alternate Names:

- There has been some controversy about Menes: Some believe him to be the same individual as Hor-Aha.
- Others claim he was the son of Narmer.
- Others says that Narmer and Menes were the same person, referred to with more than one name.

Consorts:

BerenibNeithotepe

Capital City:

- Menes founded the city of Memphis, and chose as its location an island in the Nile, so that it would be easy to defend.
- He was also the founder of Crocodilopolis

Reign:

- Considerable historical evidence from the period points to Narmer as the king who started the unification Egypt and Menes or Hor-Aha as his son and heir, who became the first Pharaoh of Egypt, and the founding Pharaoh of the 1st Dynasty.
- The most important political event in ancient Egyptian history was the unification of the two lands by Menes.
- With the emergence of a strong, centralized government under a god-Pharaoh, the country's nascent economic and political institutions became subject to royal authority.
- The central government, either directly or through major officials, became the employer of soldiers, retainers, bureaucrats, and artisans whose goods and services benefited the upper classes and the state gods. - Egypt's most predominant form of civilization began with his crowning, and did not end permanently until the beginning of the Roman era, which started with Augustus Caesar.

Military and Foreign Activity:

- During his time, the Egyptian army performed raids against Nubia in the south and expanded his sphere of influence as far as the First Cataract.

Burial:

- His death is a mystery, for, according to legend he was attacked by Nile crocodiles in Fayum.
- Menes' tomb resides at Saqqara, the famed necropolis of Memphis.
- He died at the age of sixty three